How can I make the water caustics sharper, like in this pool:
http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=41081
I have tried a million things and cant get it like that. The caustics numbers are:
Multiplier: 1
Search dist: 4"
Max Photons: 60
Max density: 0
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Post ur scene 
Here is the scene:
http://rapidshare.com/files/98554321/caustics\_pool.max.html
a simple thing that you can do is use fake caustics,
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~kand/caustics/
that program makes some caustics maps. saves allot of rendertime also
You can try to reduce your caustics Search radius and maybe add more caustics subdivs for the sun. Also, to save some memory, you can try setting the max. density to something like 0.5’’
Best regards,
Vlado
Do you like it?
Looks more interesting 
, it seems to be caused by the bump map mostly ? With calmer water it would probably not show so much ?
Here are some examples I was trying to use as reference:
http://www.aquahavenpools.com/images/final\_pool.jpg
http://www.nswoceanbaths.info/pools/images/50\_ross\_jones\_memorial\_pool.jpg
http://www.ultimatetaxi.com/mexico\_vacation/best\_swimming\_pool\_at\_mexico\_all\_inclusive.jpg
http://www.vacation-maui.com/Puamana\_Resort/images/pool.jpg
http://www.synlawn.com/synlawn\_images/artificial\_grass/case\_studies/pool\_surrounds/pool\_03.jpg
I suggest you to make water plane with more subdivision (simple plane) and add noise modifier too…
Like you said it’s hard to get nice caustics with calm water
Hmm… what Visuemporec did looked pretty good. I would try whatever settings he used.. and maybe less displacement/bump on the water plane.
I would too … but I have no idea what the settings he uses are !
Ask him for the file back? He probably didn’t offer because it sounded like you liked it better but still wasn’t exactly what you were looking for. At least that’s the way I read your response.
I love it ! please share your settings! you are a caustics master ! I can’t do it man ! I’ve been trying for a week now ! Could you post that scene !?!? please !!!
nahh
not convincing enough yet!
:lol:
I will give you my first born child ! and may it be a strong male !
:lol:
i d help u myself…but i face the same dilema as u usually…
here’s something which I’m afraid is of no help in a practical, every day’s situation. guess I was just curious to see how vlado’s direct caustics would turn out:
http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=35579&highlight=caustic
I think the result is good, but of course it takes loads of photons and memory.
anyway, here’s the scene if you want to have a peek at it:
http://www.caribouz.com/vray/caustiche\_dirette.zip
edit:
I forgot, couldn’t open your scene (guess it’s 2008 ), that’s why I set up this one.
Here is the scene:
www.visumporec.com/forum/caustics_pool2.zip
Rivoli, grazie mille ! yes, the file is 2008, sorry, I could export it to 3ds. Your image looks very nice and I see what you mean about loads of photos, 15000 ! I will try raising the search distance to see if that can reduce the amount.
Visumporec, thank you very much ! I will keep trying out the pool caustics and now see what you mean about the plane subdivisions and noise ! thanks again !
You can try use bruteforce on primary with reflective/refractive caustics enabled - slower, yes, but no need to tweak any caustics 
